The present invention relates to an ink jet head installed in an ink jet printer and a method of producing the same.
As well known in the art, an ink jet printer includes a head which comprises a body and a flat nozzle member, or nozzle plate, which is formed with a nozzle or nozzles and bonded to the body. The body defines an ink chamber therein which is fluidly communicated to the nozzles of the nozzle plate, so that a jet of ink may be ejected from each of the nozzles. As regards the nozzles, considerable accuracy is required and a great number of methods have heretofore been proposed and tested in both the material and process aspects to attain such precision.
The key to the accuracy and, therefore, reliability is, among others, how the nozzle plate should be bonded to the head body. The predominant implementation proposed for bonding them together is the use of adhesive which is based on organic compounds. Such adhesive, however, fails to maintain the bonding strength over a long time such as six months to several years and, therefore, lacks in reliability. While a diffusion bonding process is another predominant implementation proposed in the past, the problem with this process is that the process temperature is too high to readily preserve an accurate orifice, or nozzle, configuration due to recrystallization, which results in an undesired polygonal shape. Other various implementations are also known in the art such as fusion of glass, mechanical bonding using rubber or the like, pressfitting. Au-Si eutectic bonding, brazing, and welding. These implementations, however, cannot attain the desired precision without resorting to prohibitive costs.